Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-05-11
Welded in Death. m
FROM THE GRIM STORY OF CHARLES
TONS BOMBARDMENT.
HOW THE LOVELY DAUGHTER OF SOUTH
CAROLINA's FIRST WAR GOVERNOR
MARRIED SOLDIER.
PHILADELPHIA Press. 1

lPhlladelphla PresS.
Across the level tongue of land iron
which the battle-scarred, earthquake shaker
city of Charleston looks eastward stretcl
the grass-covered mounds which are all tina
is left of the mighty Notifications that LIE,
and Beauregard built and armed nearly
quarter of a century ago. Approaching tn
bank Tapped by the lazy wavelets of tn,
Ashley, these traces of the defensive works
of that era run northward of a peaceful
burial ground in which the dropping branch
es of the magnolia and palmetto trees sweel
the tops of the stones that record the names
OF men and women who have found res
beneath that sod in the generations tina
have passed since the stalwart and splendid
Huguenot pilgrims who had escaped Car
rlere's massacre established the city anc
the State. A perpetual peace dwells upor
the spot; the fragrance Of roses and mag
nolias perfumes the atmosphere; the rem
nants of the forts have been smoethed bS
the indomitable hand of time into fitting
semblance with the scene; it is difficult ever
to find upon the veterans of the arbOreal
growth the scars of the shot and shell that
once whistled and screamed from the great
guns OF Dahlgren's monitors and GilmOre's
batteries over this lovely Gods Acre of the
southern land, and between the LEAKAGE ol
the sturdy trees the visitor catches glimpses
of famous old St. Michael's spire and ali the
broad and beautiful vista of river, CITY, and
sea that extends to the horizon of the At
lantic. 1t is the ancient and venerable
cemetery of Christ- church parish, around
which Beauregard drew his military lines
of decentralization, and so brought the rude
and noisy hustle of war into intrusion upon
the everlasting sleep of South Carolinians
who had preached nullifcation and talked
States rights five lustrums before speech
became powder and shot and bloodshed.
The westering sun bathes in golden glory
one of the most prominent monuments in
this city Of the dead-a slender and graceful
marble shaft crowning turfed hillock that
from time to time blooms with the pro-
figate beauty Of flowers that bespeak assid-
uous and indefatlgable care for the memery
Of the tenant of the tomb. On the face
that is turned toward the sunset is the in
scription:
MARGARET PICKENs DE ROCHELLE.
DEC. PATH, 1864.
When South Carolina seeded from the
| Union and lit the fires of civil war her Gov
errior was Francis W. Pickens, a member of
the slave-holding aristocracy that boasted
| of its blue blood, and, like the feudal sys-
| tenn of which it was modern simulacrum,
| occasionally developed noble and admirable
| types of men and women. To that rank
Governor Pickens was entitled, and of all
the fair and lovable women to whom his
distinguished family had given birth no one
was sweeter or more beautiful than the
daughter who, when Major Anderson low
cred the flag on SUMTER was budding into
a charming womanheod. 1t has been truly
said that the war was prolonged by the
courage and persistency with which the wo-
men of the South imbued the men. No
history has ever adequately told the sacri-
fees that they made, the sufferings that
they patiently endured, to cheer and prompt
the soldiers and sailors who served under
the banner of the lost cause. Nowhere be-
tween the Potomac and the Mexican Gulf
was their spirit of unawerving devotion
more manifest and active than in the capital
of the Keystone State of the Southern Con-
federacy; and there was no patriotic project
mooted in which women could share to
which Margaret Pickens did not contribute.
A TYPE OF SOUTHERN BEAUTY.
Turning back to the Charleston newspa-
pers of the war epoch, her name is found
hundred tines upon their worn and fading
pages. In 1862 the women of the city
turned their jewelry, their diamonds-gems
that had come down to them from their
Huguenot and English ancestors-their
silver plate, and innumerable articles of
bric-a- 6rac into the money that paid for the
iron-c clad ship of-war Palmetto State that on
January 81, 1868, sunk the United States
gunboat Mercedita in battle in Charleston
harbor. In the enterprise of raising the
construction fund Margaret Pickens was
profcient and untiring. She stripped her.
self Of her jewelry, and she figured in
leading capacity at the fair or bazaar at
which the women sold their treasures that
"The Ladies' Gunboat" might be built A
bright yonng Englishman, who had come
into Charleston as an officer of one of the
bloekade-runners, saw her on that occasion
and worshiped her through the medium Of
a letter to friend in Liverpool that found
its way into the columns Of the Liverpool
Mercury. He wrote:
that my eyes over gazed upon, and the sight
of her was worth the guinea of sailors
wages that paid for the queer little flow
er | received from her hand and that is ly-
ing before me as | write. The picture of
her face, which hold in memory, would
make me willing at any time to take tho
chances of being caught or shot to pieces by
the Yankees in dodging the blockade. She
is rather tall, clean built as Shanghai clip
per, her eyes and hair are nut brown, and
her voice as soft as that of any of the Mi
norca girls
For ninteen months, beginning with
June, 1853 Charleston suffered the most
prolonged and tremendous bombardment
ever inflicted upon an American city. All
the lower part of the town was swept by
day and night by Gilmore's 300 FOUNDER
shells and forsaken by its population. The
roar of the artillery fire upon Fort Sumter
and the other defensive works was we'll
nigh incessant, while the battle upon Nor
ris island for the possession of Fort Wagner
and Battery Gregg, the frequent skirmishes
between the accommodating boat parties, the
engagements of the fleets, and such torpedo
expeditions as that which blew up the Fed
eral gunboat Housatonic left few unevent
full days in the history of the long and bloody
siege. The hospitals of the city overfowed
with wounded men, the care of whom was
largely entrusted to an organization of
volunteer nurses, of which Miss Pickens
was member.
LOVE IN HOSPITAL.
To her charge fell in the autumn of 1864,
| Lieutenant Andre de Rochelle of the First
South Carolina regiment of artillery, COM
mand of which Beaurgard said that it had
not its superior in any army in the world
1t had held Fort Sumter during the terrific
fire that orumbled the great stone walls in
to fragments and piece of bursting shell
had struck de Rochelle down with what
was seemingly mortal wound. He was
removed to a hospital under the direction of
Surgeon Jeffery, of the Confederate service,
and for the many days in which he lay
there nearer death than conscious life Miss
Pickens was his devoted attendant. There
had been no previous acquaintanceship be-
tween the beautiful nurse and her gallant
patient, and she had merely gone to his
bedside in the first instance as she might
have gone to that of any other suffering
soldier; but he owed his life to her unfag-
ging care, and when he had passed the
point of danger gratitude was mingled with
a warmer sentiment The by-play of love
ran On unchecked in the fierce theatre of
war, and they became pledged to marry
They were of equal social rank, Leuten-
ant do Rochelle having o lineage that